D&C 77-80 Quotes and Notes

D&C 77 Questions and Answers concerning St. John’s Ἀποκάλυψις Apokalypsis, or Revelation^[1]ἀποκάλυψις definition:   1. Laying bare, making naked, 2. A disclosure of truth, instruction, 2a. Concerning things before unknown, 2b. Used of events by which things or states or … Continue reading

In the form of questions and answers, the Prophet unlocked the book of Revelation by the spirit of revelation. He recorded that “in connection with the translation of the Scriptures, I received the following explanation of the Revelation of St. John.”^[2]Smith, History of the Church, 1:253.

John’s book of Revelation is part of a genre of literature known as an Apocalypse. John Collins, an expert in Old Testament, has given us the following help in understanding this literature:

“The apocalypses fall into two types.  One type, represented by 1 Enoch 1-36 and by 2 Enoch and 3 Baruch, describes a wonderful journey to places that are normally beyond the range of human experience, or an ascent through the heavens.  In these apocalypses the emphasis is on cosmology, and the visionary typically sees the abodes of the dead and the places of judgment.  The other type of apocalypse has its paradigmatic example in the book of Daniel. In this case, the emphasis is on history, which is typically divided into a specific number of periods (four kingdoms, seventy weeks of years).  In apocalypses of this type, the focus is on the time of the end, when God will intervene for judgment.”^[3]John J. Collins, Introduction to the Hebrew Bible, 563-564.

Collins has also given this definition of an apocalypse:

Specifically, an apocalypse is defined as: “A genre of revelatory literature with a narrative framework, in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being to a human recipient, disclosing a transcendent reality which is both temporal, insofar as it envisages eschatological salvation, and spatial insofar as it involves another, supernatural world.”^[4]John Collins, The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature, Eerdmans, 1998, p. 5.

There are a few apocalypses in the Bible that we have today. They are:

Daniel 7-12, Zechariah 1-6, Ezekiel, and the Revelation of St. John the Divine. There are a collection of Jewish and Christian apocalyptic texts as well. Some of these include the following:

Jewish Apocalypses

I Enoch, II Enoch, 4 Ezra, II Baruch, III Baruch, The Apocalypse of Abraham.

Christian Apocalypses

The Apocalypse of Peter, The Shepherd of Hermas, The Apocalypse of Adam, The Apocryphon of John, The Apocalypse of Paul, The Ascension of Isaiah.

Ascent Apocalypses

One scholar has identified what she terms as “Ascent Apocalypses.”^[5]Martha Himmelfarb, Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses, Oxford University Press, 1993.She writes that the central themes of these ascent apocalyptic visions are the following: 1. The understanding of heaven as a temple, 2. The visionary’s achievement of angelic status^[6]Himmelfarb, p. 7. in a process that includes the investiture of priestly clothing, and 3. The phenomenon of nature as a source of the knowledge of God.^[7]Himmelfarb, p. 95. Some of these ascension texts include the The Book of the Watchers, 2 Enoch, The Similitudes of Enoch (1 Enoch 37-71), The Apocalypse of Zephaniah, The Apocalypse of Abraham, The Ascension of Isaiah, 3 Baruch, and The Testament of Levi.^[8]Himmelfarb, p. 7.

Purpose of these texts

These texts were written to encourage the faithful as they lived in a time of great peril. Generally these visions were written and came into being between the third century B.C. and the first century A.D. Speaking of Jewish literature outside the canon, and with much that agrees with this corpus of literature, Leonard Rost has written, “This was a period characterized by wars, rebellions, and successful or unsuccessful wars of liberation; by petty intrigues and assassinations, by firm adherence to the Law of Moses which led to spiritual anguish and corporeal suffering and oppression; by the invasion of Hellenism… and a tendency for rulers to ignore the individual and cultivate an insatiable lust for power. The tiny group of Jews clustering around the temple at Jerusalem constituted only a fraction of Jewry, a fraction that grew smaller and smaller with the passage of time. Most of the Jews lived, by choice of necessity, in the Diaspora. Thus they were in the midst of an alien peoples who often exhibited little understanding of Jewish distinctiveness and frequently reacted with intolerance or even hatred to the Jew’s… this attitude resulted in oppression and persecution, which in turn evoked… messianic expectations.”^[9]Leonhard Rost, Judaism Outside of the Hebrew Canon: An Introduction to the Documents, Abingnon, 1971, translated by David E. Green, p. 34.

These texts were usually received and written by groups who were on the outside, at least from the perspective of the power brokers surrounding the Jerusalem temple. They respected the temple, but oftentimes viewed it as being in a condition of corruption. These visionaries had a focus on the last days, with the prophet’s vision focusing on the saving cosmic activities of the Divine Warrior and his council.^[10]Paul Hanson, The Dawn of the Apocalyptic, Fortress Press, 1975, p. 16. These revelations oftentimes spoke of multiple heavens as they described their visionary experiences seeing God, judgement, and angels. They had a perspective which focused on the prophetic announcement to the world of the plans and designs of God for Israel that portrayed the divine council in heaven with its plans that translated into real history, real politics, and human instrumentality; that is, the prophet interpreted for his listeners how the plans of this heavenly council will be effected within the context of their nation’s history and the history of the world.^[11]Hanson, p. 11.

When viewed in this vein of definitions, Joseph Smith fits into this pattern of apocalyptic prophet, for he has visions of many heavens, sees angels, gods, and witnesses future events in real history, gives prophetic utterances that were testable in his time, and had experiences of ascent, as well as introduced some of his followers into these experiences. With the exception of the First Vision and a few other early experiences, Joseph seems to have not been alone in his visions and revelations, thus building a bridge between the ancient apocalyptic tradition, with its “pseudepigraphal” label and the modern age we live in today that demands historical evidence to back up any religious claims. Whether or not you believe Joseph Smith had his visionary experiences, we cannot deny the historical evidence that others believed he had them, and others participated in them. This is one of the strengths of the claims of the Restoration. Say what you will about Joseph’s character, the historical evidence of his visions and the book he published to the world, known as the Book of Mormon, are evidence. This puts Joseph in the apocalyptic tradition of the visionary prophets of ages past and also into the historical narrative of real events in the modern age.

D&C 77.1 Sea of Glass – The Chaos is Conquered

We didn’t get a chance to get into this in the podcast, but I will try and address this in D&C 131 later in the year. Lots of fun things going on with this verse, some of which we touched on in D&C 61.

D&C 77.2-5

Four Beasts

“I suppose John saw beings there of a thousand forms, that had been saved from ten thousand times ten thousand earths like this,—strange beasts of which we have no conception: all might be seen in heaven. The grand secret was to show John what there was in heaven. John learned that God glorified Himself by saving all that His hands had made, whether beasts, fowls, fishes or men; and He will glorify Himself with them.

“Says one, ‘I cannot believe in the salvation of beasts.’ Any man who would tell you that this could not be, would tell you that the revelations are not true. John heard the words of the beasts giving glory to God, and understood them. God who made the beasts could understand every language spoken by them. The four beasts were four of the most noble animals that had filled the measure of their creation, and had been saved from other worlds, because they were perfect: they were like angels in their sphere. We are not told where they came from, and I do not know; but they were seen and heard by John praising and glorifying God.”^[12]Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 291-92.

We see similar things like this in Ezekiel’s visions and in the hypocephalus found in facsimile 2 of the Book of Abraham.

D&C 77.6-7 The Temporal Existence of the Earth

These verses help us understand when the events in the book of Revelation will be fulfilled. The book held “in the right hand of him that sat on the throne” (Revelation 5:1) contained the works of God from the time of Adam through the end of the Millennium. Each thousand-year period is represented by its respective seal. “John had the curtains of heaven withdrawn,” explained the Prophet Joseph Smith, “and by vision looked through the dark vista of future ages, and contemplated events that should transpire throughout every subsequent period of time, until the final winding up scene.”^[13]Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 247. Further, the Lord’s revealed timetable of John’s vision indicates that most of the tribulations described by John will take place after the opening of the seventh seal, or during the seventh thousand years.^[14]McConkie and Ostler, Revelations of the Restoration: A Commentary on the Doctrine and Covenants and Other Modern Revelations, Deseret Book, 2000, p. 555.

The History of All Things

Margaret Barker gives us the following:

The seer in the Book of Revelation stands in his vision before the throne. Once in the holy of holies, he is able to see the curtain of the holy of holies depicting the whole history of the world, past, present and future. Just as ‘Isaiah’ learns about the future descent of the LORD into the world to become the Christ, the seer of Revelation watches as the scroll is unsealed. Everything is fore-ordained, and those who enter the holy of holies are able to learn the secrets of the future.

There is a description of the curtain in 3 Enoch 45, written long after Revelation, but in the same tradition of temple visions. ‘R. Ishmael (said to be a high priest) said: Metatron (the transformed heavenly Enoch) said to me: Come and I will show you the curtain of the Omnipresent One, which is spread out before the Holy One, Blessed be He, and on which are printed all the generations of the world and all their deeds, whether done or to be done unto the last generation.’ This is implied in the vision of Habakkuk, written long before the Book of Revelation.

I will take my stand to watch,

and station myself on the tower,*

and look forth to see what he will say to me,

and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

And the LORD answered me:

Write the vision;

make it plain upon tablets,

so that he may run who reads it.

For the vision awaits its time;

it hastens to the end – it will not lie.

If it seem slow, wait for it;

it will surely come, it will not delay. (Hab. 2.1-3)

The Testament of Levi describes a vision in which Levi was taken through the heavens, and the angel who went with him said: ‘You shall stand near the LORD, you shall be his priest and you shall tell forth his mysteries to men’ (T. Levi 2.10). Levi ascended. ‘At this moment the angel opened for me the gates of heaven and I saw the Holy Most High sitting on the throne. And he said to me, “Levi, to you I have given the blessing of the priesthood until I shall come and dwell in the midst of Israel.” And then the angel led me back to the earth’ (T. Levi 5.1-3).

The mysteries entrusted to the priesthood are described in the Qumran texts; the Teacher of Righteousness was to be a priest (4Q171) to whom God would reveal all the mysteries of the words of the prophets (IQpHab VII). Wisdom writings exhort the reader to consider the raz nihyeh, the ‘mystery of existence’, or perhaps it means ‘the mystery to come’ (4Q416). There are frequent references to the raz nihyeh; those who ponder it will learn ‘the birth time of salvation’ and who is ‘to inherit glory or trouble’ (4Q417). Piecing together two fragments (4Q417 21 and 4Q418 43) shows that the raz nihyeh is knowledge of the God of the Awesome Ones, knowledge of past, present and future, of truth and iniquity, of wisdom and foolishness.

The Hymns thank God for ‘marvellous mysteries’ and knowledge (1QH XV, formerly VII). Melchizedek was to reveal ‘the ends of the ages’ (11 QMelch).

1 Enoch gives more detail of how the seer is taken first into the great hall and then summoned to the inner holy of holies:

And lo! there was a second house, greater than the former, and the entire portal stood open before me and it was built of flames of fire … And I looked and saw therein a lofty throne: its appearance was as crystal and the wheels thereof as the shining sun, and there was the vision of cherubim. And from underneath the throne came streams of flaming fire so that I could not look thereon. And the Great Glory sat thereon, and his raiment shone more brightly than the sun and was whiter than any snow. None of the angels could enter and behold his face by reason of the magnificence and glory and no flesh could behold him … And until then I had been prostrate on my face, trembling: and the Lord called me with his own mouth, and said to me: ‘Come hither Enoch, and hear my word.’ And one of the holy ones came to me and waked me, and he made me rise up and approach the door: and I bowed my face downwards. (1 En. 14.15, 18-21, 24)^[15]Margaret Barker, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2000, p. 117-118.

If You Will Receive it, This is Elias – D&C 77.9, 14

Elias is used throughout the scriptures as a code. Elias (Ἠλίας)is simply the New Testament Greek form of the Hebrew name Elijah.^[16]Ἠλίας= Elijah אֵלִיָּה= “my God is Jehovah,” a prophet born at Thisbe, the unflinching champion of the theocracy in the reigns of the idolatrous kings Ahab and Ahaziah. He was taken … Continue reading The Elias referred to on the Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew 17:3 [Matt. 17:3], as the footnote states, is the Old Testament prophet Elijah the Tishbite. Yet, Elias is many things. For example, Elias is a title for “forerunner.” The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that “when God sends a man into the world to prepare for a greater work, holding the keys of the power of Elias, it was called the doctrine of Elias, even from the early ages of the world.”^[17]Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 335–36. Elder Bruce R. McConkie of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke of the various messengers who brought their keys of authority to the Prophet Joseph Smith, then added that those messengers, “all taken together, are the Elias of the Restoration. It took all of them to bring to pass the restoration of all the keys and powers and authorities needed to save and exalt man.”^[18]Bruce R. McConkie, The Millennial Messiah [1982], 120.

One scholar has given other examples of Elias in the scriptures filling roles associated with the Restoration:

A prophet by the name of Elias, along with Moses and Elijah, appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple on 3 April 1836. We know very little about this prophet except that he apparently lived in the days of Abraham and committed the “dispensation of the gospel of Abraham” to the Prophet and Oliver Cowdery (D&C 110:12). The power and commission Elias restored was that of celestial marriage and pertains to the doctrine of eternal increase.^[19]see Bruce R. McConkie, A New Witness for the Articles of Faith [1985], 508; and The Mortal Messiah [1979], 1:56–57.… Many prophets acting in the restorative function of the office of Elias have been sent from beyond the veil to restore that which was once upon the earth—“all declaring their dispensation, their rights, their keys, their honors, their majesty and glory, and the power of their priesthood” (D&C 128:21).^[20]Keith Perkins, How can Elias, who appeared with Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration, be identified as both the Old Testament prophet Elijah (see Matt. 17:3, footnote b) and as John the Baptist (see … Continue reading

Elias as A Representation of Many

“By finding answer to the question, by whom has the restoration been effected, we shall find who Elias is and find there is no problem in harmonizing these apparently contradictory revelations. Who has restored all things? Was it one man? Certainly not. Many angelic ministrants have been sent from the courts of glory to confer keys and powers, to commit their dispensations and glories again to men on earth. At least the following have come: Moroni, John the Baptist, Peter, James, and John, Moses, Elijah, Elias, Gabriel, Raphael, and Michael. (D&C 13; 110; 128:19-21.) Since it is apparent that no one messenger has carried the whole burden of the restoration, but rather that each has come with a specific endowment from on high, it becomes clear that Elias is a composite personage. The expression must be understood to be a name and a title for those whose mission it was to commit keys and powers to men in this final dispensation.^[21]Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 1, pp. 170-174. See also: McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 221.

D&C 77 The Book of YOUR Story – I Don’t Know but YOU do

Bryce related how the Book of Revelation is a message of many things associated with the earth, but that on another level it is an invitation for us to understand that the Lord has the book related to our story. One day we will see this and understand many of the whys in our lives.

Elder Marvin J. Ashton related the following regarding this concept:

A beautiful little blind girl was sitting on the lap of her father in a crowded compartment in a train. A friend seated nearby said to the father, “Let me give you a little rest,” and he reached over and took the little girl on his lap. A few moments later the father said to her, “Do you know who is holding you?” “No,” she replied, “but you do.” Our trust and our relationship with our Heavenly Father should be one similar to that of the little blind girl and her earthly father. When sorrow, tragedy, and heartbreaks occur in our lives, wouldn’t it be comforting if when the whisperings of God say, “Do you know why this has happened to you?” we could have the peace of mind to answer “No, but you do.”^[22]Marvin J. Ashton, Ensign, Nov. 1985, 69.

D&C 77.14 The Little Book

By eating the book containing the word of God, John, in a symbolic sense, was eating the bread of life; he was feasting upon the word, which was in his “mouth sweet as honey.” Yet it made his “belly bitter”; in other words, the judgments and plagues promised those who failed to eat that same word caused him great sorrow. “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103.) Such is the exulting cry of the psalmist. Conversely, how bitter is the penalty for rebellion and disobedience. Ezekiel in like circumstance had been commanded to eat a book, which was in his mouth “as honey for sweetness,” but in the writing there was found “lamentations, and mourning, and woe” (Ezekiel 3:1-3; 2:6-10).

It was a mission, and an ordinance, for him to gather the tribes of Israel. John requested of the risen Lord that he might have “power over death, that I may live and bring souls unto thee” (D&C 7:2). The Savior granted John his desire and promised him that he would “prophesy before nations, kindreds, tongues and people” (D&C 7:3). John’s mission is to work with the scattered house of Israel in whatever capacity is necessary to prepare them to receive the restoration of the gospel. In that manner he will gather the family of Jacob. Remarks by the Prophet Joseph Smith indicate that John has been actively engaged in this commission. In June 1831 he declared “that John the Revelator was then among the Ten Tribes of Israel who had been led away by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, to prepare them for their return from their long dispersion.”^[23]Smith, History of the Church, 1:176n.

The three Nephite disciples were given a similar mission. “And behold they will be among the Gentiles, and the Gentiles shall know them not. They will also be among the Jews, and the Jews shall know them not. And it shall come to pass, when the Lord seeth fit in his wisdom that they shall minister unto all the scattered tribes of Israel, and unto all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, and shall bring out of them unto Jesus many souls, that their desire may be fulfilled, and also because of the convincing power of God which is in them” (3 Nephi 28:27-29). Neither an account of John’s work nor of the Nephite disciples’ labor among the dispersed of Israel has yet been made known.^[24]McConkie and Ostler, p. 558-559.

D&C 78 Regulating and Establishing the Affairs of the Storehouse^[25]See: The Joseph Smith Papers, 1 March 1832 Revelation.

The United Firm

This section is best understood in its direct historical context. In earlier manuscript copies of this revelation, the phrase “in regulating and establishing the affairs of the storehouse for the poor of my people” (v. 3) was absent. The original words called for the organization of “the Literary and Mercantile establishments of my church.”

The Literary Firm referred to the group of elders that consecrated their property and talents for printing the scriptures and other Church publications (D&C 70:1-5). Further, the Lord called for the establishment of what is officially referred to in Church records as the United Firm, and later, the united order. Legal title to Church property and buildings was held in the name of the United Firm. It eventually included about a dozen Church leaders, specified by the Lord in revelation to receive responsibility as his stewards. Members of the order were governed by principles of the law of consecration. Surplus profits were used to operate the Church and to purchase lands for the inheritance of the Saints in Zion and Kirtland.

The United Firm was an administrative organization that oversaw the expenditure of Church funds between 1832 and 1834. In March 1832, the Lord commanded Joseph Smith to establish this organization in order to coordinate “the Literary and Merchantile establishments” of the Church in both Ohio and Missouri. Joseph convened a council of high priests in April 1832 in Missouri for this purpose. At the council, Joseph received another revelation indicating that he, Sidney Rigdon, Newel K. Whitney, Edward Partridge, Sidney Gilbert, John Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery, William W. Phelps, and Martin Harris would be part of the organization. The revelation further explained that these men could use a portion of the collected funds for their own necessities, and any remaining funds would be used for Church purposes. They were responsible for the firm’s debts.^[26]The United Firm, Gospel Topics.

The nine men appointed to the United Firm each had a specific stewardship. Six were “stewards over the revelations” (a group that became known as the “Literary Firm”) and oversaw the Church’s publishing operations. Partridge and Whitney were the two bishops in the Church, and Gilbert was an agent to Partridge. Together, these three managed Church storehouses in Ohio and Missouri. In 1833, two additional members—Frederick G. Williams and John Johnson—were added to the firm, both by revelation. Williams, a member of the Church’s governing presidency, had large landholdings in Ohio, as did Johnson. Their holdings became resources of the United Firm.^[27]The United Firm, Gospel Topics. See also: Matthew C. Godfrey, “Newel K. Whitney and the United Firm: D&C 70, 78, 82, 92, 96, 104,” in Matthew McBride and James … Continue reading

The decision was made to include several revelations received during councils of the Literary and United Firms in the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, published in 1835. By that time the United Firm, or United Order, had been reorganized with individual members receiving specific properties as stewardships (D&C 104). This reorganization took place after a mob in Jackson County, Missouri, destroyed much of the property owned by the firm and after an apostate named Doctor Philastus Hurlburt drained profits in Kirtland, Ohio, with a lawsuit to obtain firm-owned property. Additional financial burden stemmed from debt the Saints accrued on property purchased for the building of the houses of the Lord in Kirtland (D&C 94; 96). To protect firm members from claims against them, it was decided that references to the United Firm in the revelations be changed to refer to an order and that names of firm members and locations be replaced with unidentifiable designations, such as Enoch, Pelagoram, Mahemson, Shinehah, etc.

Reflecting the changes made for the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, the revelations continue to refer to the literary and mercantile establishments as “mine order” (D&C 96:4), “my order” (D&C 104:40), “the order” (D&C 104:1, 10, 21, 71), “this order” (D&C 78:8; 82:20; 92:2), and “united order” (D&C 92:1; 104:1, 47, 53). The principles of stewardship emphasized in the revelations continue to guide the Church today in supplying funds for its operation and in providing for those in need.^[28]McConkie and Ostler, p. 561-562.

Equal in Earthly Things, Equal in Heavenly Things

Bryce covered this concept well in the podcast. The scriptures he covered in the Book of Mormon were as follows: Mosiah 23.7, Mosiah 27.3, and Alma 1.26.

Crowns, Keys, Establishing the Foundations of Adam-ondi-Ahman, and the Establishment of Michael’s Feet – D&C 78.15-16

In the Temple the throne was a permanent fixture that sat between two huge cherubim. The Ark of the Covenant, still portable, and still representing God’s celestial throne, was placed in front of the throne and became an integral part of it.^[29]1 Chronicles 28:1-6; 2 Chronicles 9:1-20; Psalms 99:4-9, 132:2-18; Mowinckel, Psalms in Israel’s Worship, 1:7, 59, 117, 129, 176, 177; Johnson, Sacral Kingship, 20-21; Seow, Myth, … Continue reading After Jehovah symbolically left the earthly temple to be enthroned in his Celestial one, the Ark of the Covenant no longer represented the presence of God, but now it represented God’s authority. As such, it become the footstool of the throne in the Holy of Holies. By having the king, or in this case, Michael, as the prince of the world, having his “feet established” in the Holy of Holies, cosmic order is established. For more on this topic, see “Establishing the King’s Feet.”

Adam-ondi-Ahman D&C 78.15

Elder Orson Pratt explained the meaning of this name: “We have then an understanding that [Adam-ondi- Ahman] was the place where Adam dwelt. Perhaps you may be anxious to know what ‘Ondi-Ahman’ means. It means the place where Adam dwelt. ‘Ahman’ signifies God. The whole term means Valley of God, where Adam dwelt. It is in the original language spoken by Adam, as revealed to the Prophet Joseph.”^[30]Journal of Discourses, 18:342-43. At the end of his life, Adam called all of his righteous posterity to gather to “the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman and there bestowed upon them his last blessing” (D&C 107:53).^[31]Hugh Nibley opens up the idea that this term means “Man in the Presence of God.” See One Eternal Round, p. 264. They meet in Adam-ondi-Ahman— Man in the Presence of (indi, ante, anti, … Continue reading

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